Sapphire Edge VS8 Mini PC Review

For the review today we are testing the Sapphire Edge VS8 Mini PC with a variety of synthetic, real world applications and modern games.

For comparison purposes we will test against a wide range of desktop and mobile systems.

It is worth pointing out that the Sapphire Edge VS8 does NOT ship with any operating system installed. You need to budget in the cost of an operating system and a USB drive with Windows installer prepared, or an external USB powered DVD/BluRay drive to install from the DVD disc.

Is this an ideal situation for an inexperienced user? Sadly not.

Ideally Sapphire should ship a more expensive version of this machine with a Windows Operating System and all drivers already installed.

All the software on the optical drive is available to download from the Sapphire website. Drivers are available for 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 98, ME, XP, Vista, 7 and 8. We are using Windows 7 64 bit for our review today.

Above, an overview of the hardware as shown in CPUz and GPUz. At the heart of the Edge VS8 is the AMD A8 4555M APU which runs at 1.6ghz with a turbo boost up to 2.4ghz. It is a quad core Piledriver Trinity chip built on the 32nm process. There is no level 3 cache. The TDP is rated at 18W.

The 4GB of Transcend dual channel DDR3 memory is clocked at 1333mhz @ 9-9-10-24 timings. A full list of HD7660G specifications are listed here.

Comparison processors:
AMD A8 3870K
AMD A8 3850
AMD Zacate E-350
Atom D525 @ 1.8ghz
Turion X64 X2 L510 @ 1.6ghz
Core i7 3610QM
Core i7 2960XM Extreme Edition (Mobile)
Core i7 2630QM
Core i7 2640M processor
Core i7 2360QM
Core i7 2600K
Core i5 2500K
Core i5 2410M
Core i3 2105 desktop processor.

Software:
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
PCMark 7
Cinebench 11.5 64 bit
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
ATTO Disk Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11
Cyberlink MediaEspresso
HQV Benchmark 2.0
Left4Dead2
F1 2012
Total War: Shogun 2
Sleeping Dogs
Hitman Absolution

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Asus BluRay Drive
Lacie 730 Monitor (Image Quality testing)
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Calibrated Power Meter
Nikon D3X with R1C1 Kit (4 flashes), Nikon 24-70MM lens.

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.

Some game descriptions are edited from Wikipedia.

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